Displaying items by tag: Germany

Thursday, 30 April 2020 21:33

Unlocking Europe

Europeans are relaxing coronavirus restrictions for children, with Spain allowing under-14s out of their homes from this week. Holland’s primary schools reopen next month, and French children aged 5 to 11 will return to school on 12 May, but with a limit of 15 pupils per class. The following week, older children will return in selected year groups. Angela Merkel warned that Germany may be rushing its lockdown exit as physical distancing is relaxing and smaller shops reopen. She said Germany remained ‘on the thinnest ice’ despite early achievements. Belgium has a detailed plan to lift coronavirus restrictions gradually, starting on 4 May, when fabric shops will open in order for people to comply with requirements for children over 12 to wear masks on public transport. From 11 May all shops and schools will reopen, with limited pupils in each class.

Published in Europe
Thursday, 19 March 2020 23:43

Europe: coronavirus and Christian conferences

The Willow Creek 2020 Leadership Conference in Germany started on 27 February with 7,400 attendees, but ended abruptly after one of the speakers contracted coronavirus. The speaker was never present during the event, but was involved with the preparations. Three people who had contact with him have since tested positive for coronavirus. Also an EU prayer meeting due to take place in Zagreb was cancelled due to coronavirus. Pray for the organisers of the many planned 2020 gatherings to make wise decisions due to health and safety issues. Pray also for the plight of homeless refugees as borders and societies close down. See also

Published in Europe
Thursday, 23 January 2020 21:47

Germany: Libya civil war Berlin meeting

The Berlin conference on Libya, attended by rival leaders in the civil war and many international leaders including Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Erdogan, concluded on 19 January. It set forth mechanisms for the establishment of a cease-fire committee which will meet regularly. However, few expect short-term changes on the ground in Libya, as a sustainable resolution remains elusive. In the days following the summit, observers said that Turkey’s increased involvement in the conflict has expanded its diplomatic clout in the nine-year conflict; it has positioned itself as a key broker in developments moving forward. Boris Johnson said that the aim of the conference was to ‘stop jockeying for position. The people of Libya have suffered enough. It is time for the country to move forward.’ 

Published in Europe

The leader of the German Evangelical Alliance, Reinhardt Schink, spoke out against the tragedy of Christian refugees and migrants who are sent back to Afghanistan and Iran, even though they could face prison, torture and death. He cited statistics about asylum-seekers who have converted to the Christian faith in Germany, but later been rejected by the authorities. ‘Behind all these nameless figures are devastating personal destinies, and risk us harming our own values system. Authorities should use the “know-how” of the Christian churches.’ He said that experts should engage with church leaders, who guarantee that a person has effectively been baptised, taken a Christianity course, and become an active member of a church community. Schink added, ‘It looks as if pastors are suspected of not telling the truth. We hurt ourselves as a country when precisely those migrants who had integrated well and had become bridge builders between cultures are expelled.’

Published in Europe

France, Germany, and Britain have told the UN's secretary-general that Iran has developed a ballistic-missile system capable of delivering a nuclear weapon in violation of the Security Council resolution. A letter from those countries, plus Russia, China, and the USA, stated that the development of such missiles was inconsistent with the resolution endorsing a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and urged Tehran not to pursue activity related to such missiles. Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the letter ‘a desperate falsehood to cover up European countries' miserable incompetence in fulfilling their commitments to the nuclear deal. He said, ‘If Britain, France, and Germany want a modicum of global credibility, they can begin by exerting sovereignty rather than bowing to US bullying.’ Pray for Iran’s church leaders amid the upheaval. They are praying that God will give them strategies to use the current unrest to advance His kingdom.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 12 December 2019 23:32

France: Russia / Ukraine peace talks

13,000 people have died since fighting began between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian soldiers in 2014. On 10 December 2019 Russia and Ukraine made progress towards restoring peace in eastern Ukraine, at a Paris summit mediated by Germany and France. A joint communique stated, ‘The sides commit to a full and comprehensive implementation of a cease-fire, strengthened by the implementation of all necessary support measures, before the end of the year 2019’. A prisoner exchange was also agreed. Angela Merkel said the meeting gave renewed momentum to reviving a 2015 Minsk peace agreement that had stalled. Please pray that nothing will prevent the withdrawal of heavy weapons, the restoration of Kyiv's control over its borders, and wider autonomy plus local elections for the separatist regions. The last time the four national leaders gathered in this format was in 2016.

Published in Europe
Friday, 18 October 2019 09:23

Germany: synagogue worshippers saved

As 70-80 worshippers in a synagogue in Halle observed Yom Kippur, their holiest day of the year, a gunman shot at a locked door. The camera at the entrance showed him trying to break into the building, but the door remained closed. God protected them. The attack, streamed live, was a chilling reminder of the mosque attack in New Zealand which was also online in real time. Footage also shows the assailant laying a home-made explosive outside and uttering anti-Semitic statements. He shot and killed a passer-by, and another man nearby. Following the attack, the synagogue congregants were filmed singing and dancing on a bus transporting them from hospital. They finished the concluding prayer for Yom Kippur inside the hospital. The attacker wanted to carry out a massacre and had nine pounds of explosives in his car.

Published in Praise Reports
Friday, 04 October 2019 09:21

Germany: prayer walk

A prayer walk along the former east-west border is being undertaken by German intercessors, from 3 October to 9 November, with the slogan ‘From a lifeless divide to a new lifeline’. The walk will take place along two routes, one from the north and one from the south, to a central meeting point. Its aim is to thank God for freedom and unity, and to pray for further reconciliation and understanding between former East and West Germany.

Published in Europe
Friday, 06 September 2019 10:18

Germany - prayer of the watchmen

A German intercessor writes, ‘God has encouraged us greatly through answers to prayer and has richly blessed prayer conferences. However, the challenging developments in our land in many areas of politics and society (polarisation and hate, the growing influence of gender-mainstreaming, anti-Semitism, declining church attendance, etc), and the rapid turning away from Christian values, cause us to sit up and take notice, and to personally make time to be still before God.’ Throughout September German prayer groups will seek God across the land, believing that ‘if we seek Him with all of our hearts, we will find Him’ (Jeremiah 29:13). Let us join our brothers and sisters and pray for the welfare of German politics and society. God is shaking the nations (Hebrews 12:26,27), so we must not consider everything that is now happening in Germany and across Europe as ‘a bad thing’. There is much for which we can be thankful for in these times.

Published in Europe
Friday, 09 August 2019 13:16

Germany: Holocaust trial

92-year-old Bruno Dey will be tried in Germany for complicity in mass murder of 5,230 people in the Stutthof Nazi death camp during World War Two. The former guard admitted knowledge of atrocities of murder in gas chambers, where over 65,000 died before Stutthof was liberated on 9 May 1945. This trial is likely to be one of the last against a former Nazi guard. Dr Efraim Zuroff who campaigns for the rights of Holocaust survivors, welcomed the decision to bring Mr Dey to trial. ‘The passage of time in no way diminishes the criminal responsibility of those guilty of aiding and abetting the implementation of the Final Solution,’ he said. There have been two more recent trials of Stutthof guards after 20+ survivors of the camp were located, most of whom are currently residing in Israel.

Published in Europe